Montana Crawdad - Missoula, Montana

Double dose of wildlife interaction during last night's riverside walk: 1) a very looong, healthy garter snake zipped across the rock I was about to step down to - causing me to scream like the girl I am, thus opening the door for conversation with a couple other girl walkers who wished they could have seen the speedy snake, too; 2) the huge crawdad in today's photo kept coming back after we spooked him by getting too close. It was a bit fascinating to watch as he tucked tail to hustle backwards away from us into the crashing river surf, and to speculate whether he was put off by the noise or our shadows - or perhaps crawdads can see out of those beady little eyes better than you'd think. 

By the way, when you come to visit, it's a good idea to wear water shoes at the river.

Impending Autumn Leaves - Missoula, Montana

"Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf."

 - Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Hip Strip Sunset - Missoula, Montana

"...And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east."

-John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Smoky Sunset Drive - Missoula, Montana

"...The will is never free - it is always attached to an object, a purpose. 
It is simply the engine in the car - it can't steer."

- Joyce Cary (1888-1957)

Leand(e)r - Downtown Missoula, Montana

"...Vail'd to the ground, veiling her eyelids close; 

And modestly they opened as she rose. 
Thence flew Love's arrow with the golden head; 

And thus Leander was enamoured. 
Stone-still he stood, and evermore he gazed, 

Till with the fire that from his count'nance blazed 

Relenting Hero's gentle heart was strook: 
Such force and virtue hath an amorous look. ..." 

- from Hero And Leander by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Etch-A-Sky - Above Caras Park, Missoula, Montana

"The sky in the east continued to lighten. A wisp of cloud was slowly being etched in pink against the grey background." 

- from page 169, The Sword Bearer by John White

Shadow Study - Missoula, Montana

Similarly interesting shadow thoughts to ponder from two beloved authors (because I couldn't decide on just one!): 

"So don't be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don't know what work they are accomplishing within you."

 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

"I am quite likely to re-act to the opposite extreme - to feel rapturously that the world is beautiful and mere existence something to thank God for. I suppose our 'blues' are the price we have to pay for our temperament. 'The gods don't allow us to be in their debt.' They give us sensitiveness to beauty in all its forms but the shadow of the gift goes with it."

 - L.M. Montgomery, My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. Macmillan from L.M. Montgomery

Golden Moment - Missoula, Montana

"...but when men count

Those hours of life that were a bursting fount

Sparkling the dusty heart with living springs,

There seems a world, beyond our earthly things,

Gated by golden moments, each bright time

Opening to show the city white like lime,

High-towered and many-peopled. ..."

- from Biography by John Masefield (1878-1967)